Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Hurray for cake balls and pancakes, but boo to friends leaving the country. (Don't worry, this was on a volunteer basis, she isn't being deported.) My buddy Ashlee is heading to Argentina next week for a hot minute. So we had a proper send off with pancakes for dinner and a healthy helping of Lemon Cake Balls to go with them.

Before we move on to the cake balls, you should be happy to know that Ashlee thought to bring fruit for the pancakes (because you know it didn't cross my mind), so her friends had more to choose from for mix-ins than cereal and candy.

Anysugarygoodness, let's get to it.

Lemon Cake Balls

Ingredients

1box Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme Cake Mix

necessary eggs, oil and water to bake cake

8oz buttercream frosting (from a can, suckas)

white chocolate baking bark

Directions

Bake cake as directed.

Let cool completely and then crumble into big bowl.

Combine frosting with cake until it's a gooey mess.

Scoop into balls (2t cookie scoop) and chill in freezer.

Meanwhile melt chocolate bark.

Coat cake balls with bark and return to freezer to set.

I actually think this combination of lemon cake and buttercream frosting is a much better pairing than lemon cake and lemon frosting, which I have tried before and found a bit tart and overwhelming. Something to consider for my next lemon cake ball request: white cake and lemon frosting.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

One thing people love almost as much as bacon is peanut butter. This was news to me, as, growing up, I was never a huge fan. Sure an occasional PB& J and BBQ chip sandwich (don't look at me like that) would cross my lips, but Peanut Butter desserts were out of the question...until recently.

Now, whenever I get the hankering to make a peanut butter-based dessert, I try to think of ways to cram in as much peanut butter as possible without just giving someone a jar and a spoon. And with this recipe, I think I'm on my way: a chocolate peanut butter cupcake filled with a peanut butter truffle, topped with a peanut butter frosting and Reese's Pieces. Yup, that'll do.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

I bet you are thinking, "EEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW!!" Well, you are right. So very right.

Chocolate-covered Green Olives

Pimento-filled green olives and baking bark are your ingredients. The directions get a little complicated at the end, so I'll list them here:

Drain and dry olives.

Melt baking bark.

Coat olives with chocolate.

Let set in freezer.

Try one and make a face/cringe/spit it out.

Share them with your friends without telling them what it is.

Warm your cold, black heart with their facial expressions when they realize what you've just done to them.

Kids, don't try this at home. Just say "No" to chocolate-covered green olives. Only you can prevent chocolate-covered green olives. I could go on, but I'll just sum it up for you in three words: Worst. Creation. Ever.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

As promised, this week’s treats are shaped like squares: chocolate-y, caramel-y, peanut-butter-y squares of awesomeness, to be more specific.

My preference is to try to share recipes with you guys that I feel are, for the most part, my creation, or recipes to which I have made significant changes. However, sometimes I find an already amazing recipe that is just screaming “MAKE ME! MAKE ME NOW!” These bars are one of those recipes. And you need to know about them, like, yesterday.

I snagged this recipe from the Betty Crocker web site. And the only change I made was to use, with my apologies to Betty, Pillsbury Refrigerated Peanut Butter Cookie Dough instead of making the base from a BC Peanut Butter Cookie Mix.

For the full recipe of these hip-to-be-square sweets, visit Foodbeast.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Deceived! I purchased a box of Pop Tart Mini Crisps with the idea that they would be much more mini and much less crisps. They don't even have any fruit filling in them! They are just "strawberry-flavored."

Regardless, I knew that they would taste good covered in chocolate, so I pressed on, cursing Kelloggs along the way.

Chocolate Covered Pop Tart Mini Crisps

Ingredients and directions: I would tell you to make an educated guess, but you people concern me, so I'll lay it out for you, just in case. Melt baking bark of choice. Dip crisps in chocolate. Refrigerate until set.

I originally had plans to only cover them in milk chocolate. However, as they are not actually miniature Pop Tarts, they weren't as covered in white chocolate as I would have hoped, so I decided to use both kinds of baking bark. And I'm glad I did!

These mini Pop Tart fake outs are tasty in and of themselves. Covering them in chocolate just gave them an additional layer of crispiness and sweetness, which, good times, I am right? Yes, I am.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Forget making the trek to the ballpark (LAME!) or county fair to get your cotton candy fix because I am bringing it to you with these super sugary, super sweet and super awesome cake balls!

These were so friggin' good that, regardless of their shape, I couldn't not post the recipe right away. Maybe I should consider changing the name of my blog to Ball-Shaped and Chocolate Covered Treats with Some Other Good Stuff Thrown In. I have grand plans to share something shaped like a square next week.

Anyroundthings...I was inspired by the Cake Mix Doctor's Cotton Candy Cupcakes. I used her base cake recipe and pulled together the frosting from a number of different sources, switching up a few ingredients and, of course, the directions.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

I've never been huge on certain types of chocolate: chocolate chips, M&Ms, Hershey's kisses and bars. So growing up, I was all about some sugar cookies. But I also love cookies that are soft and chewy, which is not always what you associate with a sugar cookie. Those Lofthouse cookies are my favorite packaged sugar cookie (especially with the frosting on top!!!!). I've tried a couple copycat recipes, and I'm sure I'll try a few more. This time around, however, I wanted to try something that was closer to a typical sugar cookie. This recipe is from Baking Illustrated.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

Cream the butter, sugar, and the brown sugar on medium until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and vanilla; beat at medium speed until combined.

Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined.

Scoop cookies using 1.5T cookie scoop and roll in additional 1/2c of sugar.

Butter the bottom of a drinking glass and then dip the bottom of the glass in the remaining sugar. Flatten the dough balls with the bottom of the glass until they are about 3/4 inch thick.

Bake 15 to 18 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets about 3 minutes.

Eh. If you are looking for a nice sugar cookie recipe, this is definitely a winner. But if you are looking for a ridiculously thick and chewy sugar cookie, I would advise either not smashing the cookie down before baking or using a different recipe.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

A majority of the recipes I like to make often have me shaping things into balls; ergo, they usually have the word “balls” in the name. Although it always leads to a number of wonderfully inappropriate jokes, at times I feel the need to switch things up and keep you on your toes. So “bites” it is.

The ingredients (sans the chocolate bark) and the first few steps parallel your typical Rice Krispies Treats recipe, but after you stir the cereal in with the marshmallows, things get a little interesting (and irritating). Visit Foodbeast, to find out how.

Friday, August 5, 2011

[Insert your own joke about how you like your "gushers" (Mom, please don't Google it.) covered in chocolate here.] Are you ready now? Let's move on.

When Fruit Gushers first came out, they were sooooo much cooler than just regular fruit snacks. However, I was always afraid that I would sqoooosh them in my lunch bag and the goo in the middle would go everywhere and then I would open up the pouch they were in and it would be a mess. But my mom never actually bought them for us, so crisis averted.

Even though the novelty of Gushers has worn off (I prefer my Sharks fruit snacks, thank you very much), they make a good chocolate-covered treat.

Chocolate-Covered Gushers

Ingredients

1pkg Strawberry Gushers (feel free to use the flavor of your choice)

baking bark (I used one bar of white and one bar of chocolate to cover them all)

Directions

Open the individual packets of Gushers and separate each snack as they are most likely stuck together. (Consider the ones that are oozing significantly fallen soldiers and do with them what you will.)

Freeze the Gushers for 5 to 7 minutes just to firm them up a bit.

Meanwhile melt the baking bark and coat the Gushers.

Stick them back in the freezer to set.

Yum! Yum! Yum! These were small and fun (like me!), and all of the different textures (crunchy, sticky then gooey...also like me!) played off of each other well.

It was difficult for me to get a consensus on which was better: white or chocolate. I liked the white chocolate better (shocker!), but again some other taste-testers were adamant that the chocolate was the superior coating. I guess you'll just have to try both.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

If Freud were alive and read my blog, he'd probably be eager to have a chat with me about the shape of most of the desserts that I create. These are no exception.

I made Chocolate Tim Tam Truffles a while ago, but I had saved a couple packages of Tim Tams with caramel in the middle for a later date and time. (I also busted out my box of frozen Thin Mints and made more truffles with those last week).

The recipe and directions are the same as before, but it's easy to repeat, so I will include it here again.